


Tainted Love

by RebellingStagnation



Series: Geronimo Series [8]
Category: Darkwing Duck (Cartoon)
Genre: Blood and Injury, But not the healthy kind, Father-Son Relationship, Self-Harm, Stranded, Strong Language, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-04-14 22:56:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14146431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebellingStagnation/pseuds/RebellingStagnation
Summary: A small fic spanning the three years Negaduck was stranded in Oblivion with Stellar. Prompt from MistyRainbow101. MIND THE TAGS! This is an intense ride, so please know your limits and take care of yourselves. Rated E for language, torture, suicidal thoughts, and blood and injury.





	1. Bohemian Rhapsody

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This taking place in Oblivion between Negaduck and his father, it's going to be dark and intense. Please know your limits, read the tags, and take care of yourself. If it's going to be too much, then please feel free to skip out on this one.
> 
> For MistyRainbow101 (I told you I was writing it!) who gave me the idea for this story, for RubberSoles, LeviPrime, AJ, RaidenRaccoon and Pharoh-Ink who've kept me inspired, and Amelia because you pushed me to write this one even though it intimidated me.
> 
> I hope you like it! ~RS

Negaduck slipped out of the stairwell in the healthcare services headquarters, carefully closing the door behind him. When it emitted a soft snap, he winced.

He stood stock still, listening for any other noise or any slight disturbance.

There was no wind today.

Nothing to break up the unearthly silence this universe was choked with.

Negaduck’s soft gasps sounded like an intrusion, and he focused on taking deep calming breaths. Breathing too loudly would give away his position. Stellar could be down the hall, waiting to get the drop on his son. And an odd noise would lead Stellar directly to his prey.

Negaduck hated that he’d become something as simple as _prey_ in this universe, but when there were only two occupants in a whole city — a whole _world_ — one was the predator and one was the prey.

Stellar had been hunting his son from the moment they’d arrived. So, through process of elimination, that left Negaduck as the prey.

It was simple math, and Negaduck had always been good at math.

Negaduck fumbled through his cape until he found his pistol and yanked it out, gripping it in his sweaty palm.

Steeling himself, he took a step forward.

Waited. For something to happen.

Nothing.

He took another step.

Waited.

Nothing.

Step.

Wait.

Nothing.

Step.

Wait.

Nothing.

Just like that all the way down the short corridor which diverted from the main hallway of the building.

Sliding his back against the wall and gritting his teeth when his costume rubbed against the drywall much too loudly,

Negaduck willed his heart to stop hammering. For his breathing to even out. He couldn't properly hear anything when his internal organs were practically _screaming_ at him to run the other way.

After a moment of trying (and failing) to collect himself, Negaduck took a steadying breath and glanced around the edge of the corridor. Into the main hallway.

All clear.

Didn’t mean Stellar wasn’t there.

Negaduck had learned his lesson with _that_.

Every time — every _damn_ time — Negaduck assumed he was just being paranoid and there was no threat and he needed to calm the fuck down, Stellar appeared. All sneering beak and drawn brows, insisting Negaduck take him back to their universe.

Because Negaduck was his ticket home since he’d been the one who had stranded them here in the first place.

He’d constructed the button that had been their method of transportation. A clever little device that, once pushed, sent the victim to this godforsaken place. And, yes, Negaduck had pulled his father down right along with him.

For Gosalyn.

To keep her safe.

And he would do it again if it meant keeping that psychopath here instead of in the same universe as her.

Glock ready at his side, Negaduck inched down the hallway, eyes roving over each possible hiding place where Stellar could be lurking.

He crept by each door, glancing through the windows into offices and meeting rooms, looking for anything out of place. Any indication that Stellar was about to get the drop on him.

Negaduck still had the bruises on his arms to remind himself of what happened when he got too comfortable and thought he was alone. His knee hadn’t been the same after that last encounter with Stellar; Negaduck knew he’d tweaked some muscle down there, but he didn’t have the luxury of time to work it out or let it rest. Stellar was always _somewhere_. Ready to grab his son, try to wrestle him to the ground, attempt to bind his hands or his feet or force some drugs into his system to knock him out.

Negaduck had managed to escape Stellar’s clutches so far, but each time had been a closer call than the last.

Stellar was _learning_.

Figuring out what Negaduck’s weaknesses were. Studying his fighting style. Identifying what moves could counteract those he’d used to break free.

It... _this_ was worth it, right? This banishing himself and his father to a faraway universe where they were trapped in this eternal game of cat and mouse was something he was supposed to be _proud of_ , yeah? Because, so far, it had only brought on misery and hopelessness.

Negaduck came to a halt as he rounded the corner at the end of the hallway.

There was a shadow. Through the frosted glass in the office door. He could make out the rounded shoulders, the head unmoving as it stared straight ahead.

Shit.

Stellar _was_ here.

Damn it all to hell, Negaduck had chosen this building on a _whim_.

How had Stellar known? How could the older mallard be so deeply in his son’s head he was predicting what Negaduck would do before he did it?

His heart hammering so hard Negaduck was sure it could be heard pounding against his ribs, he rearranged his grip on the

Glock and began to back away slowly. Once he’d cleared the corner, he ducked back into the main hallway and hurtled towards the nearest door.

He could hunker down in one of the conference rooms or an office.

Fold himself underneath a desk or in a dark corner behind a lectern until the sun set. When his shadow wasn’t another giveaway of his position.

Goddamn it.

He’d already changed his waking hours after he’d realized Stellar had become nocturnal.

When they’d first arrived, Negaduck had stuck to the night hours like glue. He’d always been more at home in the dark and found the night soothing. Until a few weeks ago when Negaduck had climbed through jungle gyms, ducked under swing sets, and vaulted over monkey bars, seesaw's, and merry-go-rounds in the moonlight.

After that, when he’d injured his knee, Negaduck had adapted. Kept the same schedule as the sun. Carefully picked a location with a blue sky overhead, then locked himself inside for the night.

Once the darkness fell, he would fall into a fitful sleep only to jerk awake a few moments later, sure he’d heard something or had felt someone in the room with him. After ensuring that he was still alone, he would take stock of everything in the room, see what he could possibly use as a potential weapon, and plan an escape route.

Rinse and repeat.

Sleep. (Though it was really more like passing out from exhaustion.)

Wake up in a panic.

Plan how to survive if he was attacked.

Figure out the best escape route.

Until the sun rose.

When he’d leave that building and use the day to find a new sanctuary for the night.

Negaduck curled his fingers around the cold metal of the nearest doorknob and twisted. He only just managed to not swear aloud when the door didn’t give way.

Locked.

He slipped down to the next door. Same thing.

Stellar had locked the doors.

He’d anticipated Negaduck trying to hunker down and hide until the coast was clear.

Fuck it all, what was he supposed to do _now_?

Because Negaduck was sure, with everything in him, that Stellar had only left _one_ door unlocked. The one he was sitting behind. Waiting for his son to come through.

Negaduck could always go back the way he’d come. Slip down the stairwell, run through the alley to the opposite end, and find another building.

Or.

Hear him out.

He could finish this.

Here.

Now.

Barge through that last office door, gun literally blazing, and put up a fight instead of running from it.

And, yeah, he wouldn’t win.

If Stellar had gone through the trouble of locking all the doors and waiting for his son to arrive, he probably had an arsenal of weapons with him.

But Negaduck was _tired_.

Maybe it _was_ time to give up.

Give into the pain that had been lodged in his chest since leaving Gosalyn and just accept that this was how it all ended.

Sure, there was gonna be a whole lot more pain; Stellar had always been _creative_ in finding new ways to kill people.

But if Negaduck went into this not fighting, but accepting. Letting it all just _happen_.

He took a deep breath.

Stood straight.

Wished he had his fedora to straighten because _damn_ that would have looked cool. Instead, he gripped his Glock with both hands.

He wasn’t going to walk away from this one.

Didn’t mean he couldn’t have a hell of an entrance first.

Flicking off the safety, Negaduck barreled down the hallway.

He turned the corner and kicked open the door. (Stellar hadn’t even tried to barricade it, knowing his son would be coming through.)

Negaduck aimed at the head he’d seen through the frosted window.

And fired.

The head bent and the figure teetered but didn’t topple.

Negaduck took in the scene before him, trying to put together exactly what he was seeing.

It wasn't a person.

It was a fucking cardboard cutout. With a huge hole in its head from Negaduck’s bullet.

 _That_ had been behind the door.

Not Stellar.

God, even when Negaduck thought he could be in control of his demise, Stellar took that away from him, too.

Motherfu—

Wait.

Why go to all this trouble? There had to be something else. Something in this room that....

Oh.

Negaduck saw it now.

The chord which had been tied around the doorknob. That was now slack since the door stood open.

There was a burning match at the end, lighting a line of gunpowder along the floor. Following the trail with his eyes, he saw it lead to a wall of dynamite on the far side of the office.

If you wanted to be _clever_ about it.

The fighter that was buried deep in Negaduck’s DNA rose above the self-loathing and desire to just end it all.

He shot at the far window, the glass shattering, and leapt through the opening. Grabbing out a grappling hook, he twisted mid-air, and tossed it up towards the window he’d just jumped out of. It hooked onto the window sill and held, Negaduck gripping the rope and eyeing the street below him to prepare for his landing.

The building exploded, a wave of intense heat and flame shooting chunks of debris out.

His grappling hook was useless to him when he was being hurtled away via explosion.

Hitting the building across the street with enough force to make him see stars, Negaduck crumpled to the ground. He wasn’t able to ensure he landed on his good side and he groaned as his bad knee protested at being squashed under him at an odd angle. Tucking himself into a ball to cover his head, he could already feel the sting of burns along his arms.

As the street quieted, the chunks of stone and metal from the former corner office settling around him, Negaduck gradually unfolded himself, taking stock of his injuries.

Some of the debris had landed on top of him, his feathers staining red with blood from lacerations. He could already feel bruises tenderizing his ribs and he would bet money that they were already starting to darken. His head was spinning from the impact against the building, and his bad knee was throbbing underneath him.

He attributed not hearing the measured steps to his — likely — brain injury.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of blurry black dress shoes standing on the pavement in front of him.

“Oh, Drakey,” Stellar lamented, his tone tinged in disappointment. Which Negaduck was used to, so it didn’t hit as hard as Stellar probably intended.

“You’re so predictable.” One of the shoes gave him a quick kick to the ribs, causing Negaduck to curl in on himself with a soft grunt, the bruises and cuts pulsing and stinging.

“I had hoped you would’ve been a little more resourceful,” Stellar continued, his voice getting closer. He grabbed Negaduck’s beak and yanked his head up. There was a sharp prick to Negaduck’s neck as a syringe was embedded into his vein. “That you would have seen the rather obvious trap laid for you.

“But,” Stellar sighed heavily. “Here we are.”

Negaduck’s world began to fade.

Which was okay.

The drugs coursing through his system were taking him away from the pain. The fire along his arms, the throbbing in his knee, the pounding in his head all started to dissolve.

“Maybe you’ll surpass my expectations one day,” Stellar said, his voice starting to grow dim with everything else. “But I won’t hold my breath.”

That was all Negaduck was aware of before he dropped off into the blackness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know when I'll update next; this story has been really slow going. But I'll update as soon as I can.


	2. Somebody To Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some torture in this chapter as well as thoughts of suicide. Please know your limits and take care of yourself.

Blinking in the unfiltered light from the single lightbulb above him, Negaduck found himself sitting in a cold metal chair. His limbs were secured to each leg by rough corded rope and he pulled at them for only a moment before giving up. Not only were they too tight to allow any sort of movement, but his knee was still busted and ached every time he jostled his leg. It was best to move as little as possible.

He glanced around the room to see if he could recognize anything.

And what a blast from the fucking past _this_ was.

He was in the same room used by the Negaverse mafia to "interrogate" their targets. The Black Room. Reserved for betrayers and liars, the room was for those destined to die.

Negaduck had been brought here as a young boy, when Leon, his grandfather, had wanted to show him the "family business." Leon had been grooming him to be the next Don of Darkness, but Negaduck had never wanted to be apart of the mafia. They completed all their business behind closed doors and Negaduck had always been more of the "in broad daylight" sort of mallard. Why hide the fact that he was a villain when he was so damn good at it?

As a final attempt to show Negaduck that he could have both worlds — the under the radar menace and the brutal chaos — Leon had brought him to the Black Room.

Where Stellar had been in the middle of an interrogation with a recently discovered spy.

Negaduck had a pretty strong stomach.

But seeing this poor bastard tested that. He was restrained in a dentist's chair with hot wax slowly dripping on him from the ceiling, scalding his skin as it made contact. A goon was standing nearby, holding a few thin wooden spikes, the rest of which were embedded in the ends of the spy's fingers. Stellar was lingering in the background, shadows clinging to his suit as if too afraid to swallow him whole.

After a few seconds, Stellar reached for a cooled patch of wax. He picked at the ends and calmly asked, "Where's the meet location?"

The spy whimpered but didn't say anything. Stellar sighed, disappointed, as he yanked the wax away, tearing the spy's feathers off in the process. The spy cried out, tugging at his restraints, but still said nothing.

Stellar tossed the ball of wax and feathers away, disgust clear on his face. "Who are you working for?"

The spy collapsed back into the chair, whining as more wax dripped onto his face.

"Once you give us a name, we'll stop," Stellar said matter of factly.

The spy just breathed deeply and screwed his eyes shut.

Stellar shrugged. "Then this is your own fault." He nodded to the goon who grinned and shoved another spike into the spy's next available fingertip. The spy screamed and tried to yank his hand free, but the restraints held. Stellar was smiling, a look of satisfaction on his face as he glanced toward the doorway to his guests.

His smile faded when he saw Negaduck.

Eyes flashing, Stellar glared at Leon. "He doesn't deserve to be down here."

"Thought the boy would want to see the different _opportunities_ this job has," Leon said, a hand resting between Negaduck's shoulders and gently pushing him into the room.

Stellar sneered, not even hiding his disdain as he peered down at Negaduck. "If you insist..." He flicked his eyes up to Leon, who nodded.

"I do."

Stellar straightened, easily double Leon's height, and gave a swift nod. The lines around his beak deepened as he withheld his frown of disapproval and he grabbed Negaduck's arm, yanking him over to the chair. "Watch closely, Drakey," he ground out. "Perhaps you'll finally _learn_ something."

The Black Room had been the first place Negaduck had blown to kingdom come when he'd taken over the Negaverse.

And yet, despite all his efforts, Negaduck was back here.

Where the dentist's chair was bolted to the floor. Where the glass cabinet along the far wall held poisons and deadly chemicals. Where the toolbox with power tools in the drawers stretched out on the opposite end. Where the surgeon's table with medical paraphernalia was poised next to the chair.

The click of dress shoes on the concrete was the only warning Negaduck received before the door to the Black Room swung open, Stellar's lanky frame outlined in the doorway. The younger mallard didn't have his fedora to peer out from under, which was a shame, but he still managed to make his glare murderous.

"Honestly, Drakey," Stellar said with a roll of his eyes as he came into the room. "Does that method of menace work on _anyone_?"

Negaduck knew better than to argue. It was better to let Stellar do all the talking so he couldn't twist Negaduck's words to his own needs.

Pulling a wheeled table over to the chair Negaduck was tied to, Stellar placed a paper bag on top of it and reached inside. He maintained eye contact with Negaduck as he pulled out a jar from the bag. Negaduck couldn't make out the label to prepare for whatever his father had planned, but he kept his face blank and didn't flinch when Stellar whipped off the lid and tossed it onto the table with a clatter.

Stellar scooped out a generous amount of white cream from the jar and stepped closer to Negaduck.

And no matter how hard he tried to remain unconcerned, Negaduck still jerked away.

Stellar grinned. "Relax, boy. This is for your own good."

Which was a lie he'd heard before. Everything Stellar inflicted on him was "for his own good."

He took deep breaths as Stellar walked around to the back of the chair. His heart was _racing_ ; the pounding hadn't been this intense since he was a boy.

If only there was a timeline. A schedule that Negaduck could study to see when, exactly, he'd kick the bucket. That way he would definitively know how many days he'd have to suffer before the end.

Negaduck jerked when he felt something cool spread over his arms, the chair scraping loudly across the concrete.

Stellar clicked his tongue in disapproval. "It's burn salve, you idiot. You burned away half your costume and the top layer of skin in that little blast."

Shaking his head, Negaduck bit back his sarcastic comment. There had been nothing _little_ about that explosion.

He hated to admit it, but the cream did soothe his burns. Took away some of the heat and calmed the throbbing.

Stellar massaged the salve into Negaduck's arms fully before walking back around. His eyes zeroed in on the jar as he screwed the cap back on. "Says it should be reapplied every few hours." He glanced down at Negaduck. "We'll likely be seeing more of each other until you're completely healed."

Stellar set the jar back on the table and reached into the paper bag once more, pulling out gauze, cotton balls, medical tape, scissors, and rubbing alcohol.

"I will say," Stellar said, wheeling over a stool and sitting atop it. "It is much easier to pick up groceries in this universe." He wheeled close to Negaduck, long fingers skimming over his face. "No other people to contend with. And no need to pay for anything."

Negaduck grit his teeth, keeping his eyes locked on his father. But he didn't move his head, which he took some pride in.

Stellar withdrew his hand, looking at Negaduck as if he was a petulant child. "I am _helping_ you, idiot boy." He reached over to the table, dabbing a cotton ball with the alcohol. "I could leave you alone. Let you contract some disease from all these injuries." He brought the ball up to Negaduck's face, rubbing it along his cheek. It stung upon contact; he must have gotten a cut during his escape from the blast.

"But I am willing to extend a helping hand," Stellar continued, eyes focused on the cut. He tossed the cotton ball, stained red with blood, onto the floor and sat back, pulling the gauze into his lap and cutting a small strip. He pulled off two small strips of the medical tape and secured the gauze to Negaduck's cheek, smoothing the tape in place with strong sure fingers.

"I need you at full strength to get us back to the Prime Universe."

Negaduck scoffed. "In your dreams, old man."

Stellar cupped Negaduck's face in his hands, his eyes dark as he stared at his son. "I hope, for your sake, that you'll cooperate." He turned Negaduck's head to look behind him. At the Black Room. "I can _make_ you do what I want."

Pulling Negaduck's head back around to the front, Stellar studied him. "I don't want to be pushed to those limits, Drakey." He caressed Negaduck's cheek with his thumb. "But it all depends on you. You get to decide how you'll give me the information; willingly or under force."

Stellar released Negaduck and leaned back, dabbing more alcohol onto a cotton ball.

Negaduck squared his jaw and looked his father in the eye. "Good luck."

Stellar laughed. "I have no need for your luck."

_Each morning I get up I die a little_

_Can barely stand on my feet_

_Take a look in the mirror and cry_

_Lord, what you doing to me?_

_I spent all my years believing you_

_But I just can't get no relief, Lord_

_I work hard every day of my life_

_I work till I ache in my bones_

_At the end of the day_

_I take home my hard earned pay all on my own_

_I go down on my knees and I start to pray_

_Till the tears run down from my eyes, Lord_

Time became irrelevant in the Black Room.

Weeks, days, hours became things of the past.

All Negaduck was aware of were two things: when Stellar was in the room and when he wasn't.

Those times when Stellar wasn't there, Negaduck got to rest. Fell into a fitful sleep if the day had been more mild.

The days that were more intense, Negaduck would try to ease the pain away. Adjust to what he'd endured and prepare for the next time Stellar would come into the room.

The times when Stellar _was_ there….

Negaduck tried to not give away his thoughts. Or say anything. But he wasn't always successful.

Stellar pulled out bottles from the glass cabinet. Brought out tools from the toolbox. Brandished his surgical items. Used all the skills he'd collected over the course of his long life.

Negaduck had always sympathized with the spy from all those years ago. When things got bad, he would think, "At least I'm not _him_."

He didn't think that anymore.

_Every day_

_I try and I try and I try_

_But everybody wants to put me down_

_They say I'm going crazy_

_They say I got a lot of water in my brain_

_Got no common sense, I got nobody left to believe in_

_Got no feel, I got no rhythm_

_I just keep losing my beat_

_I'm okay, I'm all right_

_I ain't gonna face no defeat_

_I just gotta get out of this prison cell_

_One day I'm gonna be free, Lord_

The door slammed open, Negaduck wincing as his head pounded in protest at the loud noise. But he didn't have time to recover, long boney fingers wrapping around his neck an instant later, cutting off his air. He loosed a choked cough in the otherwise quiet room.

"You startle so _easily_ , Drakey," Stellar said in his deep baritone. His sharp features swam in Negaduck's spotted vision. "Have you had time to consider my offer?"

Even if the fingers weren't wrapped around his gullet, choking the air out of him, Negaduck wouldn't have answered.

Stellar must have sensed that because he snarled, tightening his hold on Negaduck's throat. "I'm getting tired of your stubbornness, boy!"

Just as suddenly as the fingers had appeared, they released their hold. Stellar stroked his son's face as Negaduck gasped down air. "Aren't you _tired_ , Drakey?"

So tired. Everything in him was crying out in exhaustion.

"You don't have to build the bridge back to the Prime Universe," Stellar said softly, his fingers still caressing Negaduck's face tenderly. If such a word could be attributed to _Stellar_. "You can tell me how to build it. I'll do all the work. And then you can be alone."

Stellar leaned closer, fingers gentle as they cupped Negaduck's cheek. "I would do that for you, Drakey. I'd let you go."

Negaduck turned his head, blinking blearily at Stellar. The older mallard almost looked soft in the low lighting and amidst Negaduck's blurry vision.

Stellar smiled. "You'd like that, wouldn't you, Drakey?"

He would.

"To be released."

That would be nice.

"And I would do it."

That sounded like another lie, but even if it was, Negaduck wouldn't be around much longer to find out.

"Just tell me how to get back."

There was the problem.

Negaduck closed his eyes as he released a shaky breath. When he opened his eyes again, Stellar was right there in front of him with an expectant expression on his face.

"Go to hell," Negaduck spat, marveling at how graveled his voice sounded.

Stellar's expression immediately darkened, his fingers clawing down Negaduck's cheek. Standing at his full height, he peered down at Negaduck with fury written in the long lines in his brow. "Want to know something about the body, Drakey? It can adjust to practically anything over time. It's extraordinarily resilient. But you know what it can't adjust to? An abrupt change."

He withdrew something and Negaduck heard a loud bang before his left shoulder exploded in an inferno of pain. His vision whitened and his lungs seized, not letting him draw breath to release the scream that was stuck in his throat.

His weary muscles tensed as he tried to curl in on himself, to protect the newly wounded area, but he was still tied down. His wrists and ankles burned, rubbed raw from the restraints, but it was nothing to the pain in his shoulder.

Negaduck was vaguely aware of movement around the chair, but didn't think much of it until he was curled on his side, his hand coming up to grip onto his shoulder.

Just as he realized he'd been untethered since he was able to curl up on his side, and that was a _bad_ sign, hands grabbed ahold and yanked him off the dentist chair. Shoved him down onto the unforgiving concrete floor.

Negaduck grunted as he came in contact with the ground, vision spotted with blood and feathers.

No.

It wasn't his vision.

It was the _floor_.

Littered with pieces of himself from the sessions with Stellar.

He shifted, trying to move into any position that didn't wreak havoc on his shoulder, and caught sight of his palm, stained red with fresh blood.

Stellar had shot him point blank in the shoulder.

Bastard.

Wait.

Where was Stellar?

He glanced up and saw his father looming over him.

"See, Drakey?" he said, a wild gleam in his eye as he brandished a rope in front of Negaduck's face. "Sudden pain. The brain can't handle it. It's too abrupt a change."

His boney hands reached down, grabbing Negaduck's blistered and scabbed wrists, forcing them above his head. Negaduck cried out as the bullet in his shoulder tore at his muscles with this new angle, his arm an inferno of agony.

Which, suddenly, became _so much worse_ as his arms were tugged.

Up and away.

He screamed. His throat was already raw, but the pain was too much to hold in.

The fire was all consuming. He was sure his shoulder was about to be ripped from its socket and he didn't think that was such a bad thing with how furiously it hurt.

Slowly, the world came back into semi-focus. Stellar stood beneath him, a pleased expression on his face.

Beneath him?

Negaduck blinked, taking in his surroundings.

Still in the Black Room.

But he was floating in the middle of it.

Glancing up and wincing when his shoulder protested, Negaduck saw his hands tied together with the rope Stellar had been holding. And the other end was attached to something in the ceiling.

Stellar had strung him up by his injured shoulder in the middle of the room.

He met Stellar's eyes, who was grinning.

"Perhaps, in a few hours, you'll have changed your mind." Stellar reached up and tapped Negaduck on his bad shoulder, causing him to release an involuntary cry.

With a chuckle, Stellar straightened his suit jacket and left the room, closing the door with a finite snap.

Negaduck sighed, whimpering when his shoulder was jostled.

But there was no way to _not_ jostle it when he was being held aloft by the damn thing.

He tried to maneuver so his right shoulder was holding most of his weight, groaning as his bad one burned and throbbed, blood streaming down his side. The red rivulets streamed down the yellow tatters of what remained of his suit, dripping down to create a puddle on the floor.

If he was lucky, Stellar would have hit a major artery and Negaduck would bleed out before this new wound reached a state of infection.

But Negaduck had never considered himself lucky.

He didn't try to struggle against the rope. Didn't move his fingers to encourage blood flow. The sooner his arms went numb, the better.

Then he wouldn't feel the pull and burning in his shoulder.

Dropping his head to his chest, Negaduck closed his eyes and prayed for unconsciousness or, even better, death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm back to a semi-normal schedule now, so I'm hoping to update this once a week like I normally do. Thanks for sticking with this so far! I'll see you all, hopefully, next week. ~RS


	3. Killer Queen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of impending death, minor thoughts of suicide, and descriptions of pain and major injuries. Know your limits, and if you don't think you can handle this, please don't read.

Negaduck blinked blearily. He'd been so _sure_ that this last time had been _it_. That he wouldn't wake up again.

Returning to this room, strung up by his arms, was _misery_. His shoulders and upper back were a mass of pain, aching for a different position, to rest, to do anything other than be _here_. The shoulder he'd been shot in spasmed aggressively every now and then just to remind him that it was the worst of all the injuries he currently held.

Closing his eyes, Negaduck prayed to get lost in the darkness. He inhaled shakily, whimpering as his shoulders screamed in protest at the movement. Stars sparked behind his eyelids, illuminating the darkness he yearned to drift off into.

Negaduck stilled, desperate for the light to dissipate. For the blackness to return. Swallow him up. Take him to a place where he couldn't feel this pain anymore.

But the light stayed, bright swirls curling together into a familiar shape. With sunshine hair and a warm smile.

Mama.

"Hi, Baby Boy." Her voice was soft and calmed the raging inferno brought on by his injuries.

She held out a hand, her endless blue eyes dancing.

He couldn't use his hands. They were tied up. And he couldn't feel them besides, so there was no hope of moving them.

Smiling wider, like she understood, like she didn't blame him at all, Mama stepped closer. "I've been counting the days until I got to see you again."

He didn't deserve to have her eyes on him. He was filthy. Covered in blood, clothes hanging off him in shreds.

Her eyes never strayed from his face. Not looking at the state of him. Just at _him_. Understanding. Accepting.

Negaduck had _never_ deserved her. But she'd stayed. In spite of Stellar's torment. In spite of the fact that Negaduck could never do anything right.

Because she loved him.

He knew that now. He'd been so _confused_ most of his life because he hadn't seen any reason for Mama to have stood by him when she could have just _left_. Got out, saved herself, and pursued her own dreams.

But now.

After having experienced love himself.

He finally understood.

Negaduck wasn't a parent. Not exactly.

But Gosalyn was as close as he'd ever gotten. As he would get.

He released a shuddering breath, wincing when his shoulder sent a crippling pulse like an electric shock down his spine.

 _Gosalyn_.

He'd said his goodbyes. Passed along his knowledge, taught her all he could in their short time together.

But — selfish mallard that he was — he wanted more time.

And not being able to see her again somehow hurt worse than all his injuries.

Mama's smile gentled as she observed him with her clever eyes. As if she knew everything that was going through his head. "Nothing will hurt you anymore. Come on, Drakey."

He.

He just.

He wanted to say goodbye. Officially.

Gosalyn would never hear him, but he'd made a promise.

He'd _never_ leave without saying goodbye.

" _You don't just_ leave _without any explanation," she said, fury and fear warring on her face. "You leave a note or you text or you… something._ Anything _. You don't_ leave _. What was so important that you slunk out of here so early in the morning?"_

 _Negaduck, who was still floored that she'd hugged_ him _of her own free will — even for a few seconds — glared at her. "I don't need to tell you anything! I am the Lord of this universe, and—"_

" _And you can't just up and leave without saying goodbye!"_

_That… was unexpected._

_But_ of course _she'd be afraid of being alone. She'd been left alone before, first with her parents dying and then her grandfather murdered._

_She never wanted to part ways without some type of closure? A small price to pay, really, for having her here with him._

She'd stuck around after that night. Had continued to stick around no matter what he did. Negaduck _owed_ her this at least.

Gulping down a deep breath, he opened his eyes, Mama disappearing as the clinical light from single lightbulb in the Black Room scattered the endless black behind his eyelids. But she was waiting for him. He could feel it. Once he closed his eyes again, she'd be there, ready to take him to whatever stretched beyond death.

"Gos—" He coughed, his raw throat burning as he tried to speak. Water would help, soothe the scratchy heat. But he didn't have that luxury.

Clearing his throat, he tried again. "I-I'm sorry. I— Gos, I—"

"What about me?" A mop of red hair popped up into his line of vision.

Negaduck jerked back, his shoulder a mass of pain that he could feel all the way down to his toes. He wasn't sure if it was that, or seeing her again, that made tears trickle down his cheeks. "Gosalyn."

She nodded, emerald eyes bright as she looked up at him.

What was she doing here? In Oblivion?

Gosalyn smirked as one of her eyebrows quirked up. "You know I'm not really _here_ , right? You're hallucinating."

Had he spoken aloud? He didn't remember saying anything... how did she know what he'd been thinking?

"Cause I'm _in_ your head, genius." She rolled her eyes but was still smiling. "So," she glanced around the room, "how are you gonna get out of this one?"

Negaduck swallowed. He'd asked for more time with Gosalyn. He couldn't back down now, even if it was so much harder to look at her and say this.

"I-I don't think I can."

Gosalyn looked back at him, mischief dying in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"T-this is it, kid."

Her eyes grew wide as she studied him. "No."

"Listen—"

" _You_ listen!" She stepped closer to him, her eyes flashing and her expression furious. "You don't get to _give up_. You fight. You fight and you _survive_." Her hands on her hips, she glared up at him. "Get yourself out of this and you don't _ever_ think about leaving me again."

Negaduck huffed something between a laugh and a sigh. "I already left you."

"Just because we're apart doesn't mean we're never gonna see each other again."

"Gosalyn," Negaduck said, not knowing how to phrase it, hating that he had to explain that they wouldn't ever be reunited again.

She crossed her arms and leaned back to observe him, a frown on her beak. "Even if we're in different universes forever. Even if we don't see each other again, there's still the possibility. Right? The idea of _maybe one day_. Even if it's just in our dreams."

Negaduck sighed.

Gosalyn nodded and said, "You don't get to take that away from me, Negaduck. Not now, not ever. You got that?"

Negaduck was silent for a moment, studying her. The long tendrils of red hair that spilled down over her shoulders. Her dark green tunic with matching mask and deep purple cape. The costume she'd made so she'd better fit into his world.

She'd sacrificed so much, even put her relationship with Darkwing on the line.

All for him.

So he _couldn't_ give up. Even if he never saw her again, he had to fight. For Gosalyn if not for himself.

Meeting her eyes, he said, "Would be nice to have some backup right now."

She shrugged, anger dissipating as his survival instinct kicked back in. "I'm not here, remember? But Stellar's gotta come back sometime, right? You can come up with a plan before then."

Negaduck nodded, vertigo overwhelming him from the movement. "I have to be free by the time he comes back. Get the jump on him."

"Okay, then." Gosalyn sat on the wheeled stool, her face tilted up to watch him.

Negaduck growled. "Even though you're not here, would an idea _kill_ you?"

She smirked and crossed one leg over the other. "He didn't plan this."

Negaduck furrowed his brow in confusion.

Gosalyn continued, "Stellar. He didn't think you were gonna hold on for so long. He's gotten pretty desperate. You remember any of his other Black Room victims leaving that chair," she nodded to the dentist's chair, "alive?"

He didn't. All of the tortures inflicted in the dentist chair broke whoever was in it. The poor bustards were all babbling their deepest secrets before long, desperate for the cruelty to be over. Then, and only then, Stellar would kill them.

But Negaduck hadn't given anything up. Stellar had used methods on Negaduck he hadn't used on anyone else before; the older mallard kept mentioning how exiting it was to stretch his creativity. This hanging from the ceiling by his injured shoulder was certainly new.

Negaduck glanced up to look at the rigging system.

It wasn't so much a system as it was a rope thrown over a chandelier hook.

A shoddily screwed in chandelier hook that had already cracked the the ceiling.

"There you go," Gosalyn said and Negaduck was able to hear the smile in her voice.

He glanced back down to her. "It's still holding me up, even if it was screwed in without the right equipment."

Gosalyn shrugged. "It's holding you while you're hanging still."

Negaduck blinked. "… You want me to _move_?" Just hanging by his numb arms was misery enough. He'd have to get some serious momentum going if he wanted the hook to come loose.

"See? You don't need me to spell it out for you."

He glanced up towards his wrists. Looked at his shoulder. "How am I supposed to survive more than _this_?"

"For me."

Escapes were not made by wishes. Wanting to be reunited with Gosalyn wasn't enough to get him free.

But.

He was willing to try. And perhaps that's all she was asking of him.

Taking in a deep breath, Negaduck started to swing his legs back then forth.

He grit his teeth to keep the screams in his throat. Because god _damn_ this hurt. He'd been foolish enough to think that his shoulder and arms had gone numb. And they had, but the sensation was returning now. Pinpricks exploded along his arms and deep in his shoulder. Even without blood flow to his nerves, the torn muscles were stiff, movement making him feel flayed open and raw.

But Gosalyn was sitting on the stool, watching.

So he kept swinging.

Back and forth.

Gasping and whipmering through the pain.

He was going to pass out before he could even manage to get himself free. Maybe _this_ would kill him. And how pathetic was that? To survive everything his father had thrown at him only to die from his own escape attempt.

He kept swinging, the darkness encroaching closer with every movement. His arms and shoulder were an inferno, the feeling surging back down his nerves and reminding him how damaged and broken he truly was.

Negaduck had miscalculated. The hook wasn't as poorly installed as he'd thought. Even if he _did_ manage to get free, what was his plan of attack? Hobble around the room and hope Stellar wouldn't catch up?

This was _pointless_. He was causing himself so much more pain and for what? A vision of a girl. Who he was never going to see again. All because he'd fallen in love and had wanted to protect her.

"Aw, Negaduck. You big sap," Gosalyn said.

Yeah. Love was a lot of fucking help right now.

Why was he fighting for this girl that wasn't even there with him?

"That's what love is, sweet boy," Ana said, her voice warm. "You fight for something even if you know you won't win."

But how long did he need to fight? Just hypothetically? Because his arms were shaking, his shoulder was _agony_ , and he wanted nothing more than—

Negaduck became weightless for a terrifying moment before he crashed down onto the ground in a heap. He wasn't able to bite back the cry of pain as he lost consciousness.

_She's a killer queen_

_Gunpowder, gelatine_

_Dynamite with a laser beam_

_Guaranteed to blow your mind_

_Anytime_

Damn it _all_ to hell, why was he waking up _again_? Why couldn't he just die already? He was getting so sick and fucking tired of regaining consciousness.

His arms were throbbing, most of the feeling returned. Wriggling his fingers experimentally, Negaduck was somewhat relieved that his hands still worked after the little stunt his father had pulled with stringing him up like a damn marionette. His shoulder was another story, still a ball of unending pain, but the small victory of ending up on the floor was enough to temporarily drive that from his mind.

Negaduck lifted his head and glanced around the room. For what, he didn't know. A weapon? His father? That was ridiculous; if Stellar had come back, he wouldn't have left his son on the floor unbound.

Except he wasn't _completely_ unbound, was he?

He glanced down at his wrists, rubbed red and peppered with large welts. And there was the rope still secured in a tight knot. Bringing his wrists up to his beak, he grunted when his shoulder sent a jolt of white hot pain down his spine. Grabbing ahold of the rope with his teeth, he began working at the knot.

You couldn't rush these things. Loosening a knot took a certain amount of patience. And even though Negaduck wasn't known for that particular trait, when his freedom was on the line, it was amazing what he was willing to put up with.

As the knot started to ease, Negaduck thinking maybe patience wasn't as bad as he'd thought, he heard the click of dress shoes coming down the hall.

Oh, _fuck_.

Negaduck clamped his teeth around the knot and tugged, the rope loosening enough for him to wretch one of his hands through. He ignored the sting of skin being torn away, of warm blood running down his wrists as he rolled onto his knees.

He needed a weapon.

Reaching for one the Glocks he kept in his cape, he belatedly remembered that his clothes were little more than tatters. And that Stellar would have taken away all weaponry after he'd brought his son to this damn room.

Negaduck glanced around, pushing himself up to standing and biting back a cry as he jostled his shoulder. He'd forgotten how damned inconvenient a gunshot wound was.

The clicking was getting closer, becoming louder with each step. But they were measured. Even. Stellar was in no rush to get here. Which meant he didn't think anything had changed.

He didn't know his son had gotten free.

As he hobbled to a corner of the room to hide behind the door until he came up with something better, Negaduck caught sight of a few guns on a table. Including the pistol Stellar had used to shoot Negaduck in the shoulder, the weapon sporting the same silver handle he remembered seeing. Stellar was more confident than Negaduck had given him credit for, leaving weapons _lying around_ like this.

Negaduck grabbed the pistol, tucked himself against the wall, and checked the magazine. Just missing the one bullet. Which was currently in his shoulder.

The footsteps drew closer.

Clicking the magazine back in place, he cocked the weapon and cradled it to his chest.

Thank God he was right handed.

The door opened.

Negaduck stepped around the door.

Aimed.

And fired.

Stellar roared, whether from surprise at getting shot in the knee or at the fact that Negaduck had gotten free, he wasn't sure.

Stellar dropped to the floor and rolled onto his side, groaning, with one hand on his injured knee.

Negaduck straightened, his vision whiting out on the edges as he unwittingly squared his bad shoulder. As the fog cleared and the room came back into focus, _something_ was lingering in his peripheral vision. Looming in the shadows past his father. Negaduck glanced up at the hallucination, eager to see Gosalyn again. She would give him some type of reassurance that he was doing well.

He nearly fell over when he saw who it _actually_ was.

Morgana.

Not the simpering Prime version, but his all-powerful sorceress. His mistress of the black arts.

Leaning back against the wall, her short dark hair curved around her face and came to a stop at her jawline, her beak curved upwards in a smirk. "Go ahead, Negaduck," she said, her voice just as sultry as he remembered. "Kill him."

Kill…?

 _Stellar_?

 _Kill_ Stellar?

Parents were larger than life. Untouchable. Mythical. A constant presence that you'd been told would always be there.

And, sure, Negaduck hadn't had the most _idyllic_ childhood, but Stellar still fell into that all-knowing, trying-my-whole-life-to-get-your-approval parent category.

He couldn't kill his _father_. Stellar would never stand for it.

"It's easy," Morgana said, pushing herself off the wall and sauntering closer, her blood red corset and gauntlets contrasting her white feathers. The streak of silver in her hair sparkled under the solitary lightbulb, her eyes glittering dangerously. "You just point your gun and shoot."

Negaduck had dreamed about this moment. Having the upper hand and Stellar at his mercy. But to actually be faced with the reality of it.

Stellar glared up at Negaduck, his beak turned down into a dark scowl as he maneuvered into a sitting position.

"Aim and fire," Morgana said, walking around Stellar, her heeled boots clicking loudly on the concrete floor. "Right there." She came to stand beside Negaduck, hands on her hips as she watched Stellar struggle to sit up. "Between the eyes."

His hand started to shake. The gun was practically rattling in his grip.

Morgana glanced at Negaduck. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet _now_." She leaned down, whispering in his ear, "Come on. The bastard deserves it."

He did deserve it.

"Think of all the things he's done to you."

Years of physical and mental abuse. Of insults. Of torture.

"That's it," Morgana cooed, straightening to her full height. "Remember all those times he made you feel worthless. Every second he spent causing you pain. Causing your _mother_ pain."

Familiar white hot rage surged through Negaduck, centering him. His hand stilled as he brought the gun up. Aimed it as his father.

Negaduck had always been beyond hope and deserved the justice that would be served to him one day.

But Ana. Ana had deserved better.

Stellar sneered. "You don't have the guts, Drakey."

Morgana scoffed. "That's disgusting. Using the name your mother called you. He deserves to be killed just for that."

He did.

Stellar had never called his son by any name in particular until Ana had died. Then it was exclusively "Drakey." Stellar had taken the one thing that had been Ana's alone, the last piece of Negaduck that had belonged to her. And twisted it. Tainted it.

He still flinched when he heard it.

Negaduck put his finger on the trigger, eyes zeroed in on Stellar's forehead.

Stellar grinned. "I'm waiting."

"Smug bastard," Morgana sneered.

"Negaduck!" Gosalyn sounded desperate.

She appeared on his other side, green eyes focused on his face. "Let's go."

"He can't _leave_ ," Morgana argued, her tone harsh as she glanced at Gosalyn. "He needs to finish this. Here and now."

"Negaduck." Gosalyn was still looking at him. Calm. Soothing. "You need medical attention." His shoulder did hurt. "Let's just leave him."

" _Alive_?" Morgana practically shrieked. "Negaduck can get all the medicine he needs once he's killed that son of a bitch."

That made sense. To get rid of his aggressor.

"You can't decide whose life ends," Gosalyn said gently, eyes on his face. Not wavering. "That's beyond you."

"Idiot child," Morgana growled. And Negaduck bristled at that; Gosalyn wasn't an idiot.

"He's murdered before. He'll do it again," Morgana said.

Which was probably true.

Gosalyn stepped closer, a small smile on her beak. "I just need you to survive, Negaduck. Not become a killer."

"Too late for that," Morgana said, huffing a laugh.

It was. Far too late; Negaduck was a murderer several times over.

Morgana flashed a grin. "If you're already damned, why not have some _fun_?"

Stellar clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Once again you have no conviction. You can't commit."

Negaduck inhaled deeply and focused on his father. "Taking your life." He shook his head, swallowing the bile that pooled in his mouth at the motion. "Isn't worth it."

Morgana laughed right along with Stellar. "Oh, Drakey. You really are the biggest disappointment I've ever encountered."

He probably was.

"You don't _deserve_ death." Negaduck pointed his gun down and fired.

Stellar howled as the second bullet buried itself into his good knee.

Negaduck dropped the gun, the metal crashing loudly on the concrete as he stumbled back. Having temporarily taken away Stellar's ability to walk, he'd bought himself some time.

He could get away.

"Come on," Gosalyn urged, turning and darting out the door.

The room spun as he backed away. Stellar crumpled in on himself, hands cradling the bloody remains of his knees.

Losing his balance, Negaduck's good arm pinwheeled as he fell backwards. He bumped against the doorframe, emitting a grunt as he was jostled into a half-standing position.

"Come on!" Gosalyn called, her voice half way down the hall behind him. Negaduck spun out through the doorway, paying no heed to Stellar's screams and curses. He staggered down the hall, using the wall to hold himself up when his vision blurred, when the pain in his shoulder overpowered all his other senses. Gosalyn was always in front of him, running onward, urging him to keep going.

As the adrenaline started to wear off, Negaduck began to tremble, pain rolling through him with a vengeance, flooding his nerves with white hot sensation that left him whimpering and gasping for air. His vision blurred, his steps less and less sure.

Even emerging into the sunlight, his first time outside in he didn't know how long, Negaduck was only aware of the thundering in his ears, the white fuzzy edges of his vision, his skin feeling too tight and his eyelids heavy.

There was something his muddled brain was searching for, he just couldn't pinpoint _what_. He just kept following Gosalyn, fumbling behind, because she seemed sure of where she was going.

He wasn't going to make it. He couldn't. Even with Gosalyn still ahead of him, he couldn't find the strength to do much more than gracelessly hobble along.

Down a street, down ten streets, he didn't know. All he was vaguely aware of was swinging open the door to a building Gosalyn disappeared into. Of the cool hard floor as he plummeted forward, his body finally giving up. Of the blackness that had been on the outskirts of his consciousness taking him away almost as soon as he made contact with the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The line where Negaduck confesses to falling in love with Gosalyn came from the TV show “Frasier.” — "You don't just love your children. You fall in love with them. It's that same rush, the same overwhelming desire to see them, to hold them, bore other people to tears with every detail about them."


	4. Holiday Road

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some mentions of death and cancer but otherwise, this chapter should be okay. All the same, if you feel uncomfortable reading this, please feel free to skip it. You and your mental health are more important than this story.

 

Gosalyn was there when he woke up. Sitting beside him on the chilled floor, her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped loosely around her legs. She glanced down as he blinked awake and sent him a small smile.

He had just enough energy to realize he was safe and emit a groan before the darkness took him away again.

Negaduck managed to stay awake longer each time he woke.

The second time, he realized he was in an emergency room and had enough awareness to get his boundaries before passing out again, Gosalyn still sitting beside him.

He made it into a private room the next time he gained consciousness, where there were cabinets lining one wall, all neatly labeled with the medical supplies they stored. Using the bed in the middle of the room as leverage, Negaduck lifted himself up with his good arm to get his feet underneath him, and used the nearby surgeons table to break the glass, making the locks on the windowed cabinets obsolete. Rifling through the equipment, he easily found the drugs and tools he needed to fix up his shoulder. But he was more injured and exhausted than he realized, because one shot of morphine into his system — the blessed relief of not being able to feel _anything_ — and he passed out like a fucking light, collapsing back down onto the floor. Gosalyn lingered on the edges of his vision, settling into the visitor's chair at the foot of the bed.

It took him two more attempts to perform surgery on his shoulder, but he was eventually successful. He'd never realized how goddamn comfortable hospital beds were, and remembered to hook himself up to an IV before he let the darkness carry him away again, his shoulder aching but not throbbing, neatly wrapped up in bandages. And Gosalyn, still sitting in the chair, keeping an eye on the door.

After a few more bags of the saline, he felt pretty steady on his feet and was able to roll out of the bed. Only to discover that hospital showers were just as good as the beds. While it wasn't relaxing by any means — the surprisingly strong water pressure awakened other injuries he hadn't realized he had; contusions, bruises, and lacerations _covering_ his body — it was enough to make him wonder why people were always so averse to hospitals. This was like a _vacation_ , getting a room to himself that he could — and always did — lock, his own private bathroom, a comfortable bed, and all the medical supplies he needed in the room or down the hall in the stockroom.

Then there was the cafeteria which blew his fucking mind. Endless amounts of food that he was able to help himself to. Why anyone wanted to leave a hospital was beyond him. If he'd known about this in his youth, about how much supplies and security he could get from staying at a hospital, he would have set up shop in one and guarded it within an inch of its life.

Granted, he'd never have known what hospitals were like; Stellar had never even allowed him to visit anyone — let alone a doctor — who was outside of the mafia's influence. His mother had taken him to seek medical attention a few times, when he'd been gravely sick or had a few too many injuries from Stellar's most recent outburst. But she had always paid for it. Once they'd arrived home and Stellar had found out where they'd gone.

She'd eventually ended up in a hospital herself. Negaduck hadn't been allowed to visit until she had passed away, only permitted to stop by and pay his respects after the fact. Stellar hadn't wanted his son there, for her final moments, and Negaduck had been happy to stay away. Hadn't realized his mother was dying, only understood that he was going to stay with his grandfather and wouldn't be seeing Stellar for a few weeks.

He sometimes wondered what he would have said to Ana in those last moments she'd been alive. Before the cancer took her, and all of Negaduck's hope, away. What _could_ he have said with his father lingering there in the background? Perhaps it was best they had been kept apart.

After a few days of a regular drug schedule, full meals, and showers, Negaduck was feeling more like his old self and less like Stellar's plaything. So much so that he began to grow anxious.

He needed to leave.

Get out and find a new place to hide.

Stellar probably wasn't walking yet, but that didn't mean he wouldn't find Negaduck sooner or later. Because every day Negaduck improved was another day Stellar did as well.

Gathering all the medical supplies he'd need, Negaduck threw everything in duffel bag before heading out, Gosalyn at his side with her encouraging smiles and watchful gaze. She kept reminding Negaduck that she couldn't actually act as a look out because she wasn't in Oblivion with him, but she was constantly looking around for potential threats, so it was an easy thing to forget.

He picked his way down empty streets and listened for any disturbances in case Stellar had made a miraculous recovery and was already prowling the city again. Just because Negaduck didn't come across anything unusual didn't mean Stellar wasn't out there. With both his knees damaged, though. Negaduck probably had more time.

A few blocks over he found a gym, which made him pause. Negaduck needed to get his strength back. He wasn't sure how long he'd been in the Black Room but Fall was settling in, Summer well and truly over. So, a few weeks at least. Maybe a month or two. And all that time, he hadn't been on his feet. The only exercise his muscles had gotten was tensing when he'd been in pain. His bum knee had healed itself at least, but now he had his shoulder which ached if he took it out of its sling.

So he needed to rebuild his strength, especially in his shoulder.

Barricading the gym and using the security cameras to keep an eye on the perimeter of the place, Negaduck collected all the athletic clothes that had been on display and made himself a nest in the locker room. He did grab a shirt to wear himself since his suit was in tatters, the few threads left not covering anything so much as just hanging around him in shreds. He tossed the yellow material stained brown with dried blood into one of the trash cans. He'd long since lost his cape and Stellar had ripped the mask off his face during one of their sessions. Now, he wore a shirt with the gym's log on the front. Humiliating, but necessary.

There were endless boxes of protein bars, sports drinks, and bottles of water that he hoarded away into his locker room, tucking his bag of medical supplies behind the wall of food.

Then he got to work.

Put together a workout regimen he kept to religiously. Worked on getting everything up to the same strength he'd always had. Did some physical therapy on his shoulder. Yeah, he knew how to perform physical therapy. He'd been the only one to attend to his injuries throughout his life; medical knowledge and recovery tactics were all fields of study he'd picked up pretty quick. And this place was well equipped to get his strength and mobility back. With even better showers than the hospital had. Smaller and without the seats he could perch on, but there was a sauna for that. And a full sized pool when he wanted to be weightless.

His vacation seemed to continue.

He was sitting at the front desk of the fitness center a few weeks later, eyes glued to the screens that acted as his window to the outside world as Gosalyn spun in the chair next to him, when he realized.

This was it.

The answer to his problems.

Security cameras.

Getting a hideout that he could heavily arm where he could keep an eye on the city from one location.

He wouldn't have to go back to the lifestyle of constant migration, of not staying in one place longer than a day in the hopes of outsmarting Stellar. That had gotten him a one-way ticket to the Black Room.

So if he stayed in one building. Fortified the place and set up traps and wired the security cameras so he had a constant feed of everything that was going on around his location….

But why stop at one building? The whole city had security cameras; he could outfit all of them to send their feed to his one location. He could keep an eye on all of St. Canard without leaving his hideout.

It would be a lot of work.

He'd have to build up his fortress in silence so Stellar wouldn't be drawn to his location. And only work during the day when he had light to see by. That wasn't even considering the massive job of re-wiring the security cameras in the whole damn city to feed into one location.

But it would be worth it, wouldn't it? To be able to keep track of Stellar's whereabouts and to have someplace to call home? It was worth a shot; the nomad lifestyle hadn't done anything for him.

That night, Negaduck ditched the gym. Took the remainder of his medical supplies, stuffed a few protein bars and bottles of water into his bag, and darted down alleys with Gosalyn at his heels. Until he found the next building on his list.

He slipped into the shop, used a flashlight from behind the counter to find the bolts of fabric he needed. Lugged everything to a back room where he locked himself in. Gosalyn tucked herself into the back corner alongside his duffel bag as Negaduck set to work. Cutting fabric, pinning it to a mannequin, powering up a sewing machine, and assembling the familiar yellow, black, and red shades into one look.

The athletic wear wouldn't do. Even if it was just Negaduck and his father in this godforsaken place, he didn't want to sacrifice his signature look; the yellow jacket, black cape with red interior, and ebony mask were as much apart of Negaduck as his name.

Pins clenched between his teeth, he wondered where he should set up his new hideout. Somewhere with the ability to withstand all the security feeds he was going to be hooking up. Ideally, a place that was already set up with high security. His first instinct was a bank, but that seemed too obvious. Stellar would still find him….

_Would_ he?

Banks were equipped with state of the art security systems that Negaduck could cater to his own needs. There were vaults he could barricade himself in. And who in their right mind lived in a bank? Stellar would probably look in more obvious hideout locations; Audubon Bridge, the docks, warehouses Negaduck had been drawn to in the Prime Universe because of the isolation they'd promised.

He would have to stay in a bank that Stellar would never think to look in, even if he thought to look in a bank at all.

Not the First National; it had bigger vaults and could be a feasible place to hide. But not the smaller branches either; their security wouldn't meet his standards and he wouldn't be able to fortify it the way he needed.

The Second National was where Negaduck was drawn to, and of course he was. It had been where he'd first met Gosalyn, and had become their rendezvous point for all their missions after. It irked him that it was the _Second_ National, constantly reminding him of his years stuck as Public Enemy #2, but it would be a comfort. To be in a place that he and Gosalyn met so much. It would center him.

And Negaduck thought he'd earned the right to be comfortable since he was in this damned place for the rest of his life.

He glanced back at Gosalyn. She was lying on the floor, using his medical bag as a pillow, fingers running over the strap where a few threads had come loose. She'd positioned herself there so she could still see the door to the workroom.

She wasn't here, he had to keep reminding himself of that fact, but she was still looking out for him. Even in his own head.

It was worth a walk-by at least. To case the area around the Second National.

Pulling on his new suit, Negaduck slung his bag of medical supplies over one shoulder and another duffle of extra suits, capes, and masks over the other. He made his way through the city with Gosalyn at his side. As she had been since he'd left the Black Room.

Standing at the curb of the Second National, looking up at the building that had become the center of their partnership for the better part of a decade, with Gosalyn standing beside him, he knew.

This was it. His hideout.

He'd never actually been in the building, had never stood where he was now. But their years together ran through his mind, memories of all their interactions on the top of this building playing like a movie in his head.

Gosalyn caught Negaduck's eye and grinned at him.

He didn't look down the street before he walked into the building.

Once inside, he inventoried the security features, noting what he had to increase and what he could reuse for his own purposes.

Dropping his bags in one of the larger vaults that he planned on turning into his main hub of operation, he walked back into the lobby where the sun was coming up, sending rays of golden light through the front windows. Digging out a pen and a pad of paper from one of the teller's stations, he listed what materials he needed, how he'd have to fortify the place, and what steps he needed to take to have eyes in every corner of Oblivion.

Gosalyn sat at the station next to him, watching him write it all down and nodded with every stroke of the pen.


	5. Didn’t We Almost Have It All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some self harm. Please know your limits and if this is going to be too much, please skip out on it.

Stumbling into the vault, Negaduck teetered over to the corner he'd stashed his duffel bags in. He reached for the fraying strap and tugged it closer, eager to get his feathery fingers on the antibacterial cream and bandages.

Gosalyn was sitting with the bags. Her eyes flicked to his forearm, tracking the blood seeping into his feathers, staining them red, before she looked him in the eye.

Negaduck rifled through his medical bag, trying to avoid her gaze. But that was like trying to ignore the sun on a blistering hot day. "Wire cutters slipped."

"And this was, what? Your sixth or seventh time getting electrocuted?"

He rolled his eyes and tended to his wound, expertly disinfecting and bandaging the cut. "Messing with electricity and camera feeds means I'll get shocked every now and then."

"Does it also mean you never sleep?" Gosalyn cocked her head to one side.

"You want me to _sleep_?" He shook his head and stalked out of the vault. When he tripped through the doorway, the damn uneven tile his undoing, Gosalyn materialized in front of him, her arms crossed and exasperation on her face.

She was like a damn ghost, popping up all the fucking time and disregarding the rules of physics.

"Yeah, _hallucination_ ," she said with a shake of her head. "You're sleep deprived."

He growled low in his throat and stomped back to the front lobby, this time careful of any misaligned tiles in the floor.

It's not like he wasn't sleeping. Just that he couldn't _stay_ asleep. Which he'd just come to accept as his new reality.

Cables hung down from the ceiling of the lobby, exposed wires extending out like spider legs casting branch-like shadows on the wall,s with wire cutters and electrical tools scattered on the floor. A couple dozen monitors already sat in the vault, sequestered from the offices upstairs and he needed to hook up the video feed. But he hadn't dealt with electric components in _years_ , so this was as much a re-learning experience as it was preparation for his grand scheme of having live video feed of the whole city in his bank vault. And that meant a few shocks to his system when he touched a live wire. It was apart of the job. Gosalyn needed to get off his fucking back.

Or just not show up anymore.

No.

Not that.

He'd be completely alone if that happened.

Negaduck bent down to pick up the wire cutters. A bout of dizziness overwhelmed him and he grabbed onto the ladder he'd found in a custodial closet to steady himself. Feeling centered again, he stood fully, his tools in hand.

Gosalyn was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips and a scowl turning down the ends of her beak. "You need to sleep,"she insisted.

"I _need_ to set this up," he said petulantly, climbing up the ladder. "I _need_ to know where Stellar is." He reached for the wires. "I _need_ to keep him away from here." He continued sorting them, looking for the white that betrayed video feed. "What I _don't_ need is for my damn hallucination to lecture me on lack of sleep and its side effects."

Gosalyn marched up next to the ladder, glaring up at him. " _I_ don't need to remind you," she said, pointing at his forearm that now had a bandage on it.

Negaduck batted her hand away.

His own hand met nothing but air.

He glanced down.

Gosalyn was still standing there, looking irate and pointing at his injury.

But she wasn't here.

He'd acknowledged that she was a figment, born out of needing someone in an hour of desperation. And it had been her who had stayed with him. Not his mother. Not Morgana.

It was _Gosalyn_.

He'd let his guard down, had grown comfortable with having her around, bantered with her as if she was really in the room with him. Even though he knew he didn't really have her. That she wasn't real.

Since she was in his head, could hear all of his thoughts, Gosalyn's expression turned to one of sympathy. Her accusatory finger relaxed and she turned her hand, offering her palm up to him.

He slowly brought up his own hand, knowing this was a bad idea.

It was better to get back to work. Even though he knew she wasn't really there with him, he could still pretend that she was. Suspend his disbelief and think she was stuck in this universe with him.

Because this.

This reaching out for her would confirm his loneliness.

Gosalyn stood there with a smirk on her beak. An eyebrow raised. Challenging him. Daring him.

Negaduck glanced down at her open palm, fingers extended. No hesitation. No hiding. She offered all of herself without reservation.

Drawing in a deep breath, still knowing this was a _very bad idea_ , Negaduck brought his hand down into hers.

And though he was expecting it, something still broke in him when his palm passed through hers.

As if that last bit of desperate denial had been the only thing holding him up, Negaduck sagged, the wire cutters clattering to the floor.

Gosalyn looked at him with concern, but what good did that do? She wasn't actually here.

Stumbling backwards, Negaduck clumsily climbed down from the ladder and careened back to the vault. He went to his corner where his bags were stashed. All but collapsed next to them, pillowed one under his head, and squeezed his eyes shut.

Before he could fully acknowledge that he was only doing this so he wouldn't have to look at her, to forget that she was a figment of his delusional mind and fucked up circumstances, he fell into a fitful sleep.

_Didn't we almost have it all_

_When love was all we had worth giving_

_The ride with you was worth the fall my friend_

_Loving you makes life worth living_

Negaduck whirled around with a scowl on his beak and his hands on his hips. "This has to stop."

Gosalyn cocked her head to one side, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

He sighed. "I slept. I've _been_ sleeping. What more do you want?"

"Your health isn't all about _sleep_ , you know," she pointed out.

"What the hell else _is_ there?" he demanded.

She raised her eyebrows. "Eating."

"Oh, my God." He slapped a palm to his face before turning back to the computers. Over the past week, he'd finished feeding all the video cables to the vault and now was working on getting a working picture on his monitors. The lobby had been tidied while the vault was now an explosion of wires and tools and ladders.

"I'm _fine_ ," he insisted.

"You're malnourished," she said.

He continued to strip wires and ignored her.

"You need to eat _something,_ " she pointed out.

The sun was setting, quickly taking it's light with it, and in the growing darkness, he missed the wires completely. His hand slipped, forcing him to lean back to avoid smacking himself in the face with the rogue pliers.

"Don't tell me you're too busy to eat," she continued. "Cause I'm in your head and I _know_ you're not."

He spun around to face her. "Exactly! You're _in my head_. You're not real. Get off my case."

She put her hands on her hips. "Apparently the only reason you can see me is _because_ you're not eating so, no. I _can't_ get off your case because you're too stubborn to take care of yourself and need a hallucination to do it for you!"

Negaduck studied her, feeling the fight drain out of him. He fiddled with the pliers so he wouldn't have to meet her eyes as he said, "That's not the only reason."

"What?"

Negaduck took a deep breath before looking up at her. "My not eating isn't why you keep showing up here."

Gosalyn studied him in confusion before understanding dawned on her face. "I'm not real."

Negaduck scowled. He knew that.

She took a step forward, eyes locked on his. "I'm not Gosalyn."

"I _know_ ," he snarled, aloud this time.

"You sure? Because you seem to think she's here a lot."

"So what if I do? Huh? What the fuck does it matter?"

"It _matters_ when you stop eating. When you can't tell the difference between reality and your hallucinations anymore."

Negaduck ran a hand through his feathers.

"You not eating to make sure she'll appear isn't healthy. It's not what she'd want for you."

"I'm not starving myself to see you."

She smiled cynically. "But it helps, doesn't it? She appears easier if you don't take care of yourself. When you're just a little delusional." When Negaduck didn't say anything, her smile fell off her face. "What do you think your Gosalyn would say if she knew what you were doing?"

"I'll never know!" Negaduck fumed, throwing his pliers across the vault, satisfied when they clattered angrily against the reinforced steel. He glared at Gosalyn, who didn't even blink in the wake of his anger. "She's in another universe and I'm fucking stuck _here_."

She smiled even as her eyes filled with tears. Gosalyn had this superpower where her eyes somehow grew in size when she cried, dwarfing all her other features. Her face became nothing but big sad eyes and tears softly rolling down into her feathers.

Negaduck hasn't seen her cry often, but when he did. The heart that had grown because of her would constrict in his too tight chest, making it difficult to breathe.

Like now.

"You need to send me away."

He sighed, his heart squeezing at the thought. "I'll take care of myself. Happy now?"

She shook her head. "Not that. You made a promise."

" _And you can't just up and leave without saying goodbye!"_

He suddenly found it difficult to swallow. "A-again?"

Gosalyn blinked, a tear tracking down her cheek. "I think a goodbye the only way you can move on without her."

"What if I don't?" Negaduck inhaled shakily before continuing, "What if I just keep you here? With me?"

She gave him a watery smile, another tear falling. "You can't."

"I'll eat." He stepped towards her, those big green eyes following his movements. "I'll sleep. I-I just want…" he reached for her, "this one thing. I—" His words died away when he tried to take her hand in his and couldn't.

Because she wasn't there.

"Goodbye, Negaduck."

He nodded, stepping back. "Get out of here already."

Turning on his heel and refusing to glance over his shoulder, to see if she'd left him or not, he stalked into the lobby.

Or he would have.

But just before he'd fully rounded the corner from the vault to the lobby, he froze.

Because Stellar was peering in through the window.

His sharp gray eyes scanned the lobby. Fully healed, standing with his knees straight as he leaned forward towards the glass, looking for anything out of place.

Instincts screaming at him to duck down, to run back to the vault and lock it behind him, Negaduck was about to turn and run when his logic reminded him that any sudden movement would draw Stellar's eye.

He had to hope that he hadn't gone too far into the lobby to be seen and that the growing shadows would conceal him.

Illuminated by the streetlights, Stellar turned his head away from Negaduck.

While his father was looking away, Negaduck drew his cape around him, the black material hiding the yellow jacket. His heart was sure to be his undoing, racing as hard as it was. Stellar was sure to hear it. And if that didn't catch the older mallard's attention, Negaduck's choked breaths would definitely do it.

Stellar moved, glancing in Negaduck's direction.

The pain he hadn't felt for weeks was suddenly back in his shoulder, fierce and alive. His feathers felt dry with caked blood. Exhaustion descended upon him heavily. It was as if he'd never left the Black Room. Like this had all been a dream. One of his hallucinations. Escaping and planning to keep track of Stellar through a goddamn bank with a few security cameras.

But Stellar's keen gaze never landed on Negaduck directly. Just swept the lobby before he straightened, a sneer on his face. He glanced down the street and slunk down the sidewalk, moving so smoothly that you wouldn't guess his knees had been blown out all those weeks ago.

Once Stellar disappeared from Negaduck's line of vision, he collapsed into a heap on the floor, his legs unable to support his weight anymore. Breath coming out in gasps and shaking like a leaf in the wind, Negaduck tried to remind himself that he was free. That he'd gotten away, managed to get better. He wasn't in the Black Room. He was still out of his father's grasp.

Negaduck glanced around, eager to find something to focus on, to ground him and help bring himself down from his panic attack.

He didn't realize he'd been looking for Gosalyn until he opened his beak to call out to her. But her name caught in his throat.

She was gone.

Hallucination and all.

He hadn't understood how much he had come to rely on her the past weeks until now. When she wasn't here. When his loneliness closed in around him on all sides, suffocating him, pulling him _down down down_ ….

With nothing and no one left to hold onto, Negaduck squeezed his eyes shut and submitted to his blind panic and choking sorrow.


	6. Don’t Stop Me Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings for this one. Other than language, because Negaduck can't control himself.

Rising up onto his knees, Negaduck cracked his back and rolled his head around to stretch his neck.

Sighing, and just wanting this whole damn thing to be over, Negaduck stretched back down on his belly, the rooftop unforgiving beneath him. Lining his eye up with the rifle scope, he surveyed the street for any disturbances.

It didn't take him long to realize that Stellar was in his line of vision, carefully picking his way down the street.

If Negaduck had any discipline, he would have just ignored how sore and stiff his muscles were and stayed in position. Then he wouldn't have lost this valuable time.

Reaching out beside him, Negaduck slammed his palm on the button he'd installed nearby. Through the scope, he saw the lights in the grocery store near Stellar flicker on. The older Mallard stopped in his tracks, standing alert and surveying the building. Ever the predator seeking out his prey, he remained completely still and watched the area in front of him.

Anticipating that lights flicking on wouldn't be enough to draw his father in, Negaduck hit the button again, which turned the lights off.

And Stellar immediately perked up, a lightness in his frame as he glided towards the front doors and slowly, carefully, pushed them open.

Once his father was well inside, Negaduck shot to his feet and sprinted across the rooftop to the opposite end of the building. Grabbing the zip line handlebars he'd carefully lodged between a pipe and one of the A/C units, he leapt off the rooftop and catapulted down the zip line towards a nearby skyscraper.

Tumbling onto the neighboring rooftop, he careened into the stairwell, flipping the switch on his way down the steps. It should have triggered the magnets he'd installed back in the grocery store, causing a few cans to tumble off the shelves. That should give Stellar a wild goose to chase for a little while.

Or so he hoped.

God, he hoped.

Barreling down the stairs, Negaduck easily found the doorway he needed; he'd left it cracked open, sunlight spilling through into the otherwise dark stairwell. Pushing through it, he smiled when he saw the mattress he'd stashed there a few days ago still sagging on the floor. He'd been able to move it into the building next to his hideout over the course of several days, but hadn't dared get any closer to the bank in broad daylight without assurance that Stellar was well occupied clear across the city.

Because it wasn't just the video feeds that Negaduck had realized he needed. He'd set up distractions. Ways to lure Stellar out of his own hiding places and keep him occupied so Negaduck could wander the city getting supplies.

So electromagnets had been installed throughout the city the past few weeks.

And were being tested for the first time today.

Grabbing the mattress, Negaduck lugged it onto his back and hurried outside. He half-dragged, half-carried the thing to the Second National down the street, punching in his security code before entering the building.

Ever since that night when Stellar had peered in through the window, Negaduck had focused on improving the security of the place. And he was starting to build himself an impressive fortress.

He heaved his mattress into the lobby before locking and arming the doors. Dragging the new mattress into the vault, he flopped it down opposite his computer screens and walked over to them. Toggled to the camera feed he wanted. And couldn't hold back his smirk when he saw his father, a pistol in hand, slinking down the aisles of the grocery store.

It had worked.

It had fucking _worked_.

He'd lured his father away and had kept him occupied. Negaduck had been able to wander out into the city without fear of keeping watch over his shoulder.

Maybe he could actually consider installing his bullet-proof windows in the lobby.

He'd have to draw Stellar even farther away. Possibly create some noise to drown out the construction sounds Negaduck would inevitably make.

Until then, Negaduck collapsed down onto his mattress and was lulled to sleep by the image of his father desperately searching for him clear on the other side of town.

_I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky_

_Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity_

_I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva_

_I'm gonna go go go_

_There's no stopping me_

The pulley system worked beautifully. Negaduck was able to leverage the large pane of glass easily, gluing down the sides before setting the entire thing into the new window sill he'd constructed.

This was the last window to get the bullet proof glass. He'd learned a lot from the first window he'd installed a few hours ago, and had gotten the installation down to a precise system.

Negaduck spared the monitor closest to him a passing glance. Stellar was by Audubon Bay, following wayward car alarms that kept going off. Satisfied to see his father darting down the bridge, he reached for his nail gun.

Using car alarms to pull his father further away from the middle of the city had been one of his favorite ideas.

He'd have to think of some other distraction now.

Because looking at the enforced windows made him want to get a better set of doors. These were armed, sure, but they were flimsy compared to the windows.

The better doors would be a bitch to track down, let alone install, but Negaduck would sleep better at night.

He still didn't sleep _well_. The bank made a helluva lot of noise at night, creaks and groans that made Negaduck question if it had been a building to emit the noise, but at least he was _sleeping_. He still jerked awake in a panic every few hours. Kept weapons near his bed so he always had a way to defend himself. Most of the time, after an hour or two of sleep, he'd station himself at the computers, unable to rest until he had visual confirmation on where Stellar was.

Finishing the installation, Negaduck dragged the power tools to his vault. He used an A-frame to unhook his pulley system from the ceiling and did a sweep of the lobby, making sure to grab the extra computer monitor that he'd dragged out earlier, and verified that nothing was out of place before heading back to the vault for the night.

All of his personal items were shoved along one wall. The mattress with a ratted blanket and a flat pillow. His tools. The bag full of medical supplies and the other duffel he took out to stock up on food. His backup suits were piled in a corner, a mass of yellow, red, and black.

The rest of the room was dedicated to his monitors, all sitting on desks that he'd stacked on top of one another creating a veritable wall that stretched up to the ceiling and gave him eyes all around the city. He'd dragged down an impressive office chair from one of the top floor corner offices and would curl up in it as he surveyed the city.

Negaduck replaced the monitor he had used to keep tabs on his father while he installed his windows. Settling into the chair, he chugged some water and watched Stellar whirl around on the bridge as another set of car alarms were activated.

He looked frustrated, maybe even a little paranoid. His wide eyes darting around as he tried to follow all of the screeching sirens that were echoing around the empty city.

Negaduck grinned as he ripped open a protein bar.

This place was sort of growing on him.

_I'm burning through the sky_

_Two hundred degrees_

_That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit_

_I'm traveling at the speed of light_

_I wanna make a supersonic man out of you_

Eyes glued to the monitor, he pressed the button. A lone bottle rolled down the alley, the glass skittering over the asphalt.

Negaduck almost didn't dare blink, afraid he'd miss something on the video feeds. But there was no movement.

He shifted his fingers, reached for another button, and pressed it, eyes traveling to a new set of screens. A different street. Where a fork was dragging along a fire escape, the metal prongs tingling over the worn steel.

Again.

Nothing.

Another button.

Another set of monitors.

A sack of flower falling from a rooftop and landing with a dull thud.

A twig snapping.

A set of crates creaking as they were jostled.

Motion-sensored flood lights flicking on down by the docks.

But each distraction brought the same results.

Nothing.

Damn it, where was the old mallard?

He wasn't… he wasn't _catching on_ , was he? Figuring out Negaduck's plans? This set up was all Negaduck had. If Stellar was putting the pieces together and starting to counteract his son's moves….

Every few seconds, Negaduck glanced over his shoulder, wondering if he'd run out of time. If he'd pushed it too far. If he'd gotten too comfortable and too cocky and now Stellar was hunting him down again. If, at any moment, he would would calmly walk into the vault and let Negaduck know that this had been a fun game, but it was growing tiresome and it needed to stop now.

What would Negaduck do then? He'd _just_ managed to rig the city to his liking. He had even started to entertain the thought that he might be able to lure Stellar into a trap. Imprison him. Keep him locked in a secure location so he always knew where the old man was, thus giving Negaduck _complete_ freedom.

That was before each his distractions had started to fail him.

One by one.

Negaduck continued to scan the city, but he removed his hand from the switchboard.

Maybe he was using too many of his distractions at once. The city carried noise farther with no one living in it. Stellar might have been making his way towards one sound only to hear another and change direction. Or he'd stopped moving all together and was waiting. For something else to happen.

Sighing, Negaduck glanced over his shoulder — _just_ to make sure he was alone — before turning back to his monitors. His fingers were poised over the console and his eyes raked over all the different feeds.

All he had to do was wait. Something was bound to happen. All he had to do was wait. But goddamn, did it have to take so _long_?

He glanced back again. Returned his gaze to the cameras. Sighed and walked out of the vault. Peered around the corner into the lobby.

Nothing.

Negaduck made his way back to the vault and checked all the monitors again. Only to see no discernible change.

Come on.

Come _on_.

 _Come on_.

There.

Was that movement?

From the camera facing suburbia? If it ended up being a tree or some bullshit that had moved in the wind, he'd be so pissed.

But no.

 _There_ was Stellar. Behind a pickup truck, staring at the area where the twig had snapped.

Thank Christ.

Negaduck's fingers moved before his brain did, pushing another set of buttons that released a small bag of leaves fluttering down to the ground. A few seconds later, a few branches jostled.

Stellar smirked as he sprang to his feet. He carefully stepped towards the small copse of trees that separated the city from the houses.

Flipping the switch to activate a series of noises and rustlings, guaranteeing Stellar would be distracted on the other side of the city, Negaduck shouldered his bag. He strolled out of the bank and down the street towards the grocery store, where he started filling his bag with anything that caught his eye.

Suburbia.

Who would have thought.

It was such a random place for Stellar to choose.

But Negaduck wasn't one to talk, having a bank vault as his home base.

Negaduck grabbed a few additional bags full of food, water, and supplies, tossing them over his shoulders to return to the bank. Twisting off the cap of a bottled water, Negaduck didn't bother to glance up or down the street before crossing.

_Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time_

_I'm having a ball_

_Don't stop me now_

_If you wanna have a good time just give me a call_

_Don't stop me now cause I'm having a good time_

_Don't stop me now yes I'm having a good time_

_I don't want to stop at all_

Negaduck jostled awake and sat up. He grabbed the pistol he kept stashed between the mattress and the wall and glanced around the room, looking for any disturbance that could have roused him from sleep.

A muffled explosion rumbled in the distance, the bank quaking with the aftershocks.

Great.

Just great.

Negaduck groaned before rolling off his mattress and shuffling over towards his computer monitors. Stellar must be getting desperate if he was resorting to explosives. He probably assumed Negaduck would be drawn to those since he'd set off so many throughout his life.

And, yeah, Negaduck was kind of intrigued. But that was neither here nor there.

Settling into the chair, he was about to start scanning video feeds, but a few screens were black, betraying the location of the blast.

Damn it!

It would take _weeks_ to get those damaged cameras back up and running.

Yanking a keyboard towards him, Negaduck started typing furiously. Trying to get some sort of picture back. But it was a lost cause.

Fucking hell.

Typing in new commands, Negaduck glanced to another set of monitors whose cameras were damaged but not completely gone. These were on the same street, just too far away to get a good shot of Stellar. Angling the camera down the street where the explosion had taken place, he zoomed in as far as the lens would allow.

But there was nothing.

Flames and rubble and smoke, but no other movement.

Stellar wasn't there, then. Had probably detonated the explosion from far away and was now waiting for his son to make an appearance.

Not fucking likely.

Negaduck sat back in his chair, eyes still on the smoking mess of buildings as he tried to formulate some sort of plan. As much as he wanted to swoop in there and investigate further, this required a little more thought.

He'd built up an arsenal. Stockpiled weapons so he could protect himself when his father decided to finally confront him. Looks like Stellar wanted that little showdown to happen now.

So, he could grab… his….

Negaduck leaned forward, eyes bouncing between two monitors, both pointing at the destruction. Why did they look different?

Perhaps they were looking at the explosion from opposite angles?

But the flames didn't match. The amount of smoke wasn't the same.

With a few keystrokes, Negaduck had both cameras zooming out to get a wide shot of the explosion's aftermath.

And that's when he saw it.

The buildings didn't match up.

These were opposite sides of the street.

There were _two_ explosions.

Damn, Stellar really _was_ desperate.

And speak of the devil. There was Stellar, stumbling from the wreckage. He was disheveled, his suit stained with blood and feathers standing on end. Clutching a pistol in one hand and a shard of glass in the other, he charged down the street with a scowl.

Had Stellar finally lost it? What did he think he was chasing? Negaduck hadn't set anything off today, hadn't tried to lure his father anywhere. So what the hell?

He followed Stellar's progress as he limped down street after street, a furious expression darkening his face. Maybe _Stellar_ was hallucinating.

About damn time the old man snapped. Isolation did weird things to a person, and Negaduck had hallucinated for _weeks_ before yanking himself back to sanity. He'd paid his dues.

When Stellar turned down the street where Quackwerks was located, Negaduck sighed.

He was getting closer to the bank.

He'd probably set off the explosions to draw Negaduck out and, when that didn't work, decided to go hunting himself.

Looks like the showdown would happen after all.

Stellar was too hyper focused on finding his prey, so no amount of distractions would pull focus if Negaduck even tried.

Fine.

He'd let Stellar find him.

But he was going to shoot him in the knees again.

Glancing at his weapons arsenal, a rifle he'd recently brought back caught his eye. So he grabbed it and stuffed his pockets with pistols, grenades, and ammunition before journeying out to the street.

It was a short jaunt to the Quackwerks building, so Negaduck made it to his destination without coming up with a clear plan of attack.

But he'd prepared for a lot. Packed his pockets with backup weapons and ammunition. Had grabbed his new shotgun.

Still, nothing could have prepared Negaduck for seeing Gosalyn standing in the street.

Deploying an arrow towards Stellar, which detonated a netting that trapped the older mallard underneath.

Gosalyn reached for a holster secured to her leg and grabbed out a pistol. Turned around and leveled the barrel of the gun between Negaduck's eyes.

Since when had she worn a holster as apart of her costume?

For that matter, when had she worn a jumpsuit with a belt fastened around her hips? Where was her _cape_?

Looking into her endless green eyes — and fleetingly thinking that he had caught up on sleep and had been eating and drinking regularly, so what was she _doing_ here? — Negaduck asked the first question that popped into his head.

"What the _hell_ are you wearing?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are nearly there! There's one more chapter and an epilogue to go, and next week's is my personal favorite. Hope you all enjoyed this one!


	7. My Way

The stench of charred feathers assaulted his nostrils. He had always possessed a sensitive nose and the strength of the smell caused his stomach to roil, threatening to expel its contents.

He ducked his head, wincing at the sharp pain from the movement, and concentrated on breathing.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

He tried for deeply but his lungs wouldn't fully expand without a sharp sting shooting across his body just under his rib cage. So he made do with short shallow gasps, focusing on that rather than his churning stomach.

Goddamn girl.

Once he got his wits about him again, she was in for a rude awakening. Her and the boy. Stellar would make them regret going up against him.

The offensive odor didn't ebb, but his nausea did to where he could open his eyes. His head throbbed at the change in light, the blackness behind his eyelids vastly superior to the harsh unforgiving streetlight that illuminated the area around him.

But Stellar forced his eyes to adjust, head pain be damned, eager to get the lay of the land. Gather all the information he could and formulate some plan of attack against that annoying girl.

Stellar would kill her. Not only for outwitting him, but to see the lost look on the boy's face when the light left her eyes.

He could envision it all so clearly. Finding the hideout they'd run away to; they weren't in the immediate vicinity, leading him to believe they must have fled. Once Stellar located them, he would calmly walk in and they would trip over one another, trying to protect each other. At which time Stellar would shoot the girl in the gut. Observe the boy try to save her. Stellar would let him watch her bleed out and just as the boy realized she was gone, Stellar would drag him back to the Black Room. With nothing left to fight for, the boy would be easier to manipulate and would give over the directions on how to return to the Prime Universe.

Stellar was looking forward to it. Nothing compared to the victory that came when your opponent lost everything and gave up.

The netting the girl had deployed was still splayed over him, but it moved with him as he slowly sat up. He bit back the groan that threatened to loose as his head throbbed, heart skittered, and lungs seized at the new position.

He recalled having _some_ injuries. A deep cut to his hand from freeing himself from the first net. Some soreness in his back from falling. But all of these breathing issues, the pounding in his head, his heart beating erratically were new. What on earth had _happened_?

There.

On the edges of the pain, he remembered.

The twang of an arrow released.

The stinging burn of electricity dancing at the base of his neck before he collapsed into darkness.

That explained the scent of burnt feathers. They were his own. If his head wasn't hammering along his skull, he was sure he'd feel the burns pulsing.

He hadn't thought the girl had it in her to electrocute someone.

No.

He could call her by her name now. Gosalyn had officially earned his respect.

Breathing as deeply as his lungs would allow, Stellar considered his situation through the haze of pain afflicting him.

He didn't have long. The electric shock had affected his withering body beyond repair. Much as it would please him to watch the boy's anguish as Gosalyn's life slipped through his fingers, Stellar didn't have the time to track them down.

There were only a few hours left of Stellar's life. So the question became: where did he want to spend them?

The answer materialized in his mind's eye immediately.

Stellar located his little jagged glass shard, took it up, appreciating the bite of pain in his palm to distract from the agony in his head, and began sawing at the ropes around him.

_And now the end is near_

_And so I face the final curtain_

_My friend I'll say it clear_

_I'll state my case of which I'm certain_

_I've lived a life that's full_

_I've traveled each and every highway_

_And more much more than this_

_I did it my way_

Walking became stumbling as he slowly made his way through town using lampposts, parking meters, storefronts, and cars parked curbside to keep himself upright. His muscles spasmed every now and then, rendering his limbs useless for a few moments.

But he had an end in sight. Something to work toward. And the path was clear. No one to step on or shove aside to ensure he got what he wanted.

Which, admittedly, took some of the excitement out of it. There was no thrill of gaining a new ally, betraying them for his own gain, and crushing them when they inevitably tried to enact their revenge.

That was his favorite part. When he _obliterated_ their career, their life, whatever they held dear. Nothing in life had given Stellar more pleasure than witnessing the sheer terror that glistened in the eyes of his victims as they. realized just who they'd gone up against. How unstoppable he truly was. How ruthless. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Stellar collided with a car with enough force to activate the alarm system. He winced and staggered away, the whine of the car's siren echoing down the vacant street and causing his head to throb so forcefully he saw stars.

Stellar pressed on, so eager to escape the shrill noise that the spasms in his legs all but faded to mere twinges.

He couldn't recall ever experiencing such pain. Inflicting it on others, yes. This was mere child's play compared to the injuries he would administer to others. But to feel it himself. He understood why his victims thrashed so violently. Or ducked away from his erratically swinging fists.

That was a surprising image to dredge from his memories. The boy, still a small child, covering his head as he protected himself from Stellar's attacks.

Admittedly, much of the boy's childhood was hazy in Stellar's memory. He drank his way through most of it. But everyone did back then. You couldn't go into Big Leon's office without being offered a brandy, regardless the time of day. All meetings had booze. Each mafia job was bookended with liquor. And forget about celebrations; they were so awash in liquor it was a wonder people didn't get intoxicated by just walking through the doors. Alcohol had simply been apart of his life.

Until the damned boy grew up. Until he murdered the entirety of his family's legacy. Every member of the mafia and government agent gone in the span of a few short weeks. The boy had been gunning for Stellar, but he had always lacked focus. Stellar had escaped, made it to a different universe and joined S.H.U.S.H., which was a righteous organization in that new world, and eager to take down Negaduck, the newest villain.

What a fucking name _that_ was. Where was the class? Where was the courage to use his given name? He always had lacked a damn spine. Hiding in the shadows and fighting from a far with his explosives.

God, even _Gosalyn_ had had the decency to fight Stellar face to face. The boy would gladly have died without showing his face to Stellar ever again if he'd had a say in how his life played out. Which spoke more to his cowardice than anything.

A little over halfway to his destination, Stellar was panting and wheezing as if he'd run a marathon rather than amble down a few blocks. He leaned against the nearest shopfront, attempting to catch some of his breath back. His lungs still refused to fully expand, therein lying the problem. Taking as deep of breaths as he could, Stellar glanced around. Sought anything in his surroundings that could serve as a distraction.

And there, across the street, was the bistro where Stellar had first seen Ana. It was a pizza delivery establishment now, but then.

_In an attempt to seem more civilized, or perhaps the city's way of encouraging culture, the bistro had opened to rave reviews amongst the highest echelon of the city. It was where anyone who was anyone went to dine._

_Stellar had made a reservation over a month ago to have lunch with the district attorney in the hopes of gaining another supporter in his campaign. He arrived early and the place was packed, so he stood in the entry way, observing the diners as the hostess organized getting a table for him._

_Almost as if they knew their future mayor was standing in wait, a rambunctious couple, full of liquor and good cheer, tottered out of the door. Stellar straightened his suit. The hostess glanced back to the table as busboys scrambled, cleaning the space until it gleamed._

_Stellar grinned in appreciation. The hostess glanced to Stellar as the busboys placed the new table settings with precision and smiled at him. She picked up two menus and nodded._

_Just as Stellar stepped forward to meet her, someone shouldered past him and sauntered up to the hostesses station. She frowned at the stranger until he began talking then her eyes grew wide. She grabbed a third menu and darted off to grab one of the busboys, frantically whispering in his ear. He ran back to the kitchen and only moments later, an entire brigade of the bistro staff was scrambling to pull a third chair and place setting, switching out the centerpiece for one with less wilted flowers, replacing the linen napkins with ones that were starched within an inch of their lives._

_It didn't take a genius to see what was happening._

_Stellar had been surpassed for someone else._

_He squared his shoulders, ready to go to battle, but his fight immediately died when he saw who strode through the double doors held open by men in dark suits._

_Leon Di Lengo._

_Big Leon._

_The mafia boss who ran the entire city from his office down on Fifth Street._

_He was escorting a woman to the table. The man who had shoved Stellar aside stepped after the crime lord._

_But Stellar grabbed the man's arm before he got too far. The lackey whirled around, frustration on his face._

_Stellar just sent him his biggest campaign grin, exuding friendliness and very boy-next-door. He nodded towards Big Leon, asking, "Think you could introduce me?"_

_The lackey gave Stellar a once over, laughed, and shook himself free before going over to the table. Stellar balled his hands into fists, but kept his expression neutral. He could do nothing; the man worked for Big Leon. He was untouchable, and he knew it._

_Stellar was running through all the plausible scenarios that could get him over to that table, to Big Leon, when he saw her._

_The woman Big Leon had escorted inside was his daughter. His very eligible very beautiful daughter, Ana Di Lengo. Yellow hair hanging in soft curls around her face, her slender frame wearing the latest Michael Kestral dress._

_When the lackey sat down at the table, he grinned and leaned close to Ana. She leaned away from him, her hands folding elegantly into her lap. When the waiter arrived to fill their water glasses, she turned towards him and sent him a blinding smile._

_Stellar thought he might be in love._

_He didn't talk to her or to Big Leon that day. He had to wait a few more months, after he'd officially been elected as mayor and was attending a gala at the art gallery downtown. Stellar had been mingling and had just turned to schmooze more potential donors when he practically tripped over her. Yellow hair pined up away from her long face, brilliant blue eyes regarding him with interest._

_Stellar, devastatingly handsome in his prime, gave her a dazzling smile. She blushed and that marked the end of her bachelorette lifestyle._

_Before the night was through, she introduced Stellar to her father. Big Leon was impressed that Stellar had gotten elected at such a young age and they began talking with Ana on Stellar's arm._

Seeing the building now, decades later and in a different universe, helped Stellar recall the moment when he'd seen everything he wanted in life: to be so powerful that no reservation held you back from walking into a busy restaurant, everyone tripping over themselves to help you get there faster.

There wasn't anyone here to help Stellar now. He didn't need it. He'd seen what he wanted and all he had to do now was reach out and take it.

Righting himself, Stellar took a shaky breath and pushed onward.

At the steps of his destination, he collapsed, gulping down all the air his lungs could hold — which was becoming less and less — as his legs refused to hold him up any longer.

But he wasn't about to concede. Not when he was _here_.

Reaching up, Stellar gripped the edge of the step above him and pulled. Yanked himself up and over. His legs might have given up on supporting his weight, but they managed to push him upward as he army crawled up the pristine white marble steps. He knew he was staining everything crimson with the blood on his suit, from the gash he'd carved into his palm, but it hardly mattered. This building belonged to him. It always had.

Once inside, he rode the elevator up to the familiar floor.

Very little had changed. Everything in here looked just as he remembered it.

Dragging himself out of the elevator was much more difficult than flopping inside of it had been, but Stellar was determined. So he yanked and tugged and shoved his way out, down the hallway, which was so much longer when he wasn't striding down it as he had done countless times.

But finally, _finally_ , Stellar reached his office. Forced open the door. Hauled himself to the far end, around the desk, and then heaved his shaking, panting, weak body into the leather chair.

As he settled into the expensive upholstery, his screaming muscles relaxed. His pounding head lolled back onto the headrest.

By now he was wheezing in addition to gasping. His head was still utter agony, but some of the throbbing eased as he reclined. He could now give into the blackness that had been encroaching in his peripheral vision for the last few blocks.

Welcome the dark he did, a satisfied smile on his beak as he succumbed to his injuries, knowing the St. Canard Mayor's chair would hold him here in Capital Hill. Long after history might have.

Holding all of the power.

In a city all his own.

He exhaled and allowed his eyes to close.

_For what is a man_

_What has he got_

_If not himself then he has not_

_To say the things he truly feels_

_And not the words of one who kneels_

_The record shows I took the blows_

_And did it my way_

_Yes it was my way_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Amelia for the inspiration to write from Stellar's point of view! I hope this meets your expectations :)
> 
> If you like the fic ending here, feel free to leave it as it is. If you'd like a happy ending, continue onto the epilogue.


	8. EPILOGUE: I'm Gonna Be (100 Miles)

"I know you have to do your rounds and be thorough, or whatever," Gosalyn said, crossing her arms over her chest. "But could we, maybe, speed things up?"

Negaduck scowled as he glanced back at Gosalyn. How often did he have to explain that his rounds took as long as they took? That you couldn't put a time limit on making sure his arsenals were secure, that his hideouts and boltholes hadn't been compromised? But his reprimand died on his beak when he caught sight of her.

Shoulders hunched with her arms pressed as close to her body as she could get them.

Cocking his head to one side, Negaduck asked, "Are you cold?"

"A little bit," she confessed. A gust of wind barreled down the street and Gosalyn dropped down into a squat, hugging her knees to her chest. "A lot a bit," she amended, trying to make herself a smaller target against the chilled breeze.

Negaduck returned his attention to the warehouse, checking the multiple padlocks he had used to secure the doors. "You know what would come in handy right now?"

"Oh, my God."

"A cape."

"Yeah!" She said, sounding on the verge of manic. "Ha ha, I changed my suit and now I'm cold and I wouldn't have been before and it's _hilarious_. Can we go home?"

Negaduck tugged on the door and was pleased when it didn't budge. "Shouldn't have changed your suit to begin with."

"I like this suit. It's made of Kevlar, easy to move in, and has kept me safe so far."

"Just not from a fall breeze."

"I have a winter suit," Gosalyn pointed out. "But it was warm this afternoon and I didn't think I'd need it, and now I hate everything."

Negaduck turned back to Gosalyn, a smirk on his beak.

Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "If I say it, can we go home?"

Negaduck tucked his hands into his pockets and tried to look nonchalant. "Say what?"

She sighed dramatically, hugged her knees all the tighter as another gust of wind blew past, and said, "You were right, Negaduck. Losing the cape might have been a hasty decision. Now, home? Please?"

Negaduck grinned. "We'll have to leave early tomorrow so we can hit the three hideouts we're skipping tonight."

"Fine. Whatever. Can we just go?"

He could have insisted that they'd check on one more on their way back home. Say his schedule was too tight to squeeze in his rounds before his meetings tomorrow. But seeing her curled into a ball and practically shivering against the cold.

He wasn't made of stone.

Anymore.

"I know a shortcut."

Gosalyn immediately perked up as she leapt to her feet and followed Negaduck without hesitation.

He was so intent on returning to Avian Way, on getting out of the windchill, that he didn't realize what direction he'd taken them in until it was too late.

And Stellar was staring down at him from a mural painted on the side of a deli.

Negaduck thought he'd been doing better. Readjusting to life in the Negaverse.

But he must have been adjusting worse than he'd thought because even though he knew Stellar wasn't there, that this was just a graffitied painting of his father, he still stopped in his tracks, staring up at the mural in trepidation.

Of Stellar, in his early 20's and very handsome, looking down at the viewer with a smile on his beak. There was a glint of malice lurking in his grey eyes, but otherwise he looked harmless. Young and confident.

It wasn't just the fact that this was Negaduck's father, his tormentor, that had caused Negaduck pause. It was the fact that there was a mural a few streets down, depicting Negaduck in the exact same pose. He was snarling at the viewer instead of smiling, and his brightly colored costume was a stark contrast to Stellar's sedate pinstriped suit.

But otherwise?

The artist had mimicked this portrait precisely when creating Negaduck's.

He hadn't considered himself to be similar to his father, but if a stranger saw enough likeness to paint them the same….

Gosalyn grabbed ahold of Negaduck's hand, squeezing it lightly as she leaned against him.

And that was enough for Negaduck to be able to breathe again.

He hadn't realized how much Stellar had loomed in the back of his mind throughout his whole life. How the idea of him had pressed in around his subconscious, affecting everything he did and said. Even when he had been the Lord of the Negaverse, he'd never been free.

Now, with no possibility of his father ever coming back, Negaduck felt that he could finally _breathe_. Fully expand his lungs, take in all the oxygen he possibly could, and expel it.

No more gasping.

No more bated breath.

No more choking, gagging, wheezing, suffocating.

It had become as simple as inhale.

And exhale.

Made all the easier by Gosalyn standing beside him.

"I found these murals last summer," Gosalyn said.

She left it at that. Allowed him to make the decision if he wanted to explain these murals that someone created to depict the history of the Negaverse. Negaduck's life story, his whole family's legacy, painted on dilapidated walls and crumbling facades.

He avoided them. He'd lived through it all. He didn't need to see it all again. Relive the circumstances that had built — and destroyed — the city around him.

And then there was seeing his family.

His rotund grandfather with his beady eyes, greased back feathers, and smarmy grins.

His mother with her golden hair and sweet smiles. The only light in the dark corruption that had plagued St. Canard for generations.

His father, long, elegant, tailored. Hidden menace in his self-assured smiles, his precise posture.

The murals's backgrounds in the Mallard mafia's reign were all dark, everything highlighted by shadows, mountains of cash, and violence. Politics and underhanded deals. The importance of loyalty and, yet, the underlying distrust.

All of which was blown to hell a few blocks down, a mural of teenaged Negaduck illuminating the city with his fire and explosions.

"I think I figured out who most of the people were. And what happened," Gosalyn said, glancing down the alley towards the rest of the story. Down the winding alleyways of Negaduck's childhood and teenage years.

He looked at her, green eyes meeting his blue ones immediately. There was no recrimination there. No judgement. Just innocent questions about his past.

"I'm sure you did," was all he said in response.

She smiled at him lightly and nodded, understanding that he wasn't ready to share. That he might not ever be.

They both glanced back up at Stellar, Gosalyn bringing up her arm to wrap around him, fingers digging into his shoulder.

It helped, having her hold on so tightly. He tended to cling whenever she reached out to him. There was still a deep fear that this wasn't real, that she was nothing more than something his mind created out of his sheer loneliness and desperation.

She always let him hold on as tightly as he needed to.

And it helped.

Her fingers twisted in his cape, pulling the material toward her.

Negaduck looked at her. "Are you using my cape to keep warm?"

She eyed him like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm having an existential crisis here."

She nodded. "Take all the time you need. I'm just…." Her fingers were back on his shoulder and she deftly unclipped his cape.

Before he had time to react, she was racing down the street, his red and black cape swirling in the wind like a flag.

He whirled around to face her.

"You have your crisis," she called, securing the cape around her like a blanket. "I'll be here."

Negaduck scowled to hide the smile that threatened to spread across his beak. "You lost cape privileges when you got rid of yours."

Gosalyn smirked. "That's weird. It looks like I'm wearing one now."

"It'll need to be confiscated."

Her eyes grew wide. "That's not what I meant!"

Negaduck chased after her, Gosalyn bolting down another street with the cape billowing out behind her.

He might not be adjusting as well to life after Oblivion as he wanted.

But until those days when he didn't jump at abrupt noises. When he didn't obsessively put everything in a room back the exact way it had been when he'd entered it. When he could walk alone down a street without constantly looking over his shoulder or erratically changing his route to avoid being followed. When he wasn't always looking for the nearest weapon or quickest escape route. When he didn't plan elaborate distractions to lure someone to the far side of the city just so he could get something to eat.

Until then.

He'd keep chasing after Gosalyn.

And he would keep breathing. In and out as deeply as he wanted.

_And when I come home yes I know I'm gonna be_

_I'm gonna be the man who comes back home with you_

_I'm gonna be the man who's coming home with you_

_But I would walk 500 miles_

_And I would walk 500 more_

_Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles_

_To fall down at your door_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you all enjoyed the ride and that Oblivion didn't affect you too much. If you want to see anything else within this Geronimo universe, let me know!
> 
> Special thanks to MistyRainbow101 who inspired this fic; I hope you liked it! 
> 
> And my heartfelt thanks to the following for their continued support throughout this whole process: rubbersoles19, leviprime, aj-the-bluejay, raidenraccoon, pharaoh-ink, bl3randomfandoms, crazy-fangirl-10, atomic-robo-pirates, raeloganthesonic06fangirl, mistress-negs, and virdianvenus. As always, none of this wouldn't have been possible without the amazingly wonderful Amelia! 
> 
> ~RS


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